Meet our October 2000 Earth Heroes!

Skykomish High School Speech / Communications Class

» Watch the "Oily Sky" video

King County Executive Ron Sims awarded Don Emerson, Michael Moore, and six students in Emerson's Skykomish High School Speech/ Communications class as King County's Earth Heroes for the month of October. The students are Ryan Brosseau, Angie Coryell, Juliana deCarvalho, Bonnie LeCoque, Scott McCausland and Matt Robinson.

With funding from the King County Solid Waste Division’s RecycleArtist Program, Don Emerson's students worked with the 911 Media Arts Center to produce “An Oily Sky,” a mini-documentary on the underground lake of oil underneath the Town of Skykomish. Watch the video! This underground leak was created when a Great Northern railroad underground fuel tank rusted and the oil leaked into the ground. The oil is now seeping into the Skykomish River.

“An Oily Sky” was screened at the Equinox Film Festival in Leavenworth, receiving rave reviews from the professional filmmakers in attendance. In August of this year, the video won an award at the Northwest Film Center at their 24th Annual Young People's Film and Video Festival, competing against 178 videos.

"Students in Mr. Emerson's class worked with incredible vigor and vision to produce an outstanding documentary on the environmental situation in the Town Skykomish," said Sims. "This serves as a model for outstanding environmental activism among our youth in King County."

» Watch the Oily Sky video!